I am a longtime brand guy - mostly from the client side. I write mostly about smart or foolish things that brands do. I teach branding and social media at NYU and for ThirdWay Brand Trainers. Worked in marketing for Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, DoubleClick and others ...

Publishing Is Broken, We're Drowning In Indie Books - And That's A Good Thing

I love books. Physical books. Books that sit in my lap and warm it like a sleeping pup. Three and a half years ago, I had an e-reader unwillingly thrust upon me. I ignored it at first; shunned it. Then one day I was packing for a long trip and it came on me in a flash that if I used the damned thing I wouldn’t have to limit myself to five pounds of books in my luggage.

Since then I read more ebooks than physical books. I buy a lot more books, too. Last year I noticed that books were getting cheaper, but the writing was getting worse. It started to get harder and harder to shop the Kindle store because I was either upset by the price of a book or the quality of its writing. Accidentally, I had stumbled upon the new face of self-publishing.

My experience reflects a profound and wrenching transformation of publishing that is shaking the industry to its roots. The beneficiaries of the existing order – major publishers and their most successful authors have become the most visible opponents of the turmoil that these “Indie” authors have introduced.

Which is too bad, because careful examination suggests that this period of chaos will eventually yield significant rewards for both authors and consumers. It even points a way forward for traditional publishers who have faced years of declining profits.

Is Indie Publishing Good or Bad for Authors?

I interviewed mega-bestselling techno-thriller author Brad Thor (whose new book Black List has already given me paranoid nightmares). Thor is unequivocal in his support for the existing system:

The important role that publishers fill is to separate the wheat from the chaff. If you’re a good writer and have a great book you should be able to get a publishing contract.

To me, it seems disrespectful…that a ‘wannabe’ assumes it’s all so easy s/he can put out a ‘published novel’ without bothering to read, study, or do the research. … Self-publishing is a short cut and I don’t believe in short cuts when it comes to the arts. I compare self-publishing to a student managing to conquer Five Easy Pieces on the piano and then wondering if s/he’s ready to be booked into Carnegie Hall

Why do mainstream authors dislike Indie publishing to the point where some even disagree with the coined term “Indie”? It comes down to worldview. Bestselling authors who are talented and hard working – like Thor and Grafton – are inclined to believe that publishing is a meritocracy where the best work by the most diligent writers gets represented, acquired, published and sold. But this is demonstrably untrue. The most famous counter example is that of John Kennedy Toole.

Many people know that Toole had his great American novel, “A Confederacy of Dunces” rejected by publishers and that he committed suicide at 31. They may not realize that Robert Gottleib at Simon & Schuster recognized Toole’s talent but believed Confederacy to be structurally flawed. Gottlieb did not think there was an audience for The Confederacy of Dunces without major revisions – revisions that would have changed the character of the novel. Toole refused to comply and eventually committed suicide.

Rejecting Toole’s work was a marketing decision that Gottleib made for Simon & Schuster. And it wasn’t necessarily the wrong decision from a marketing standpoint. Remember, Gottleib was the guy who acquired Catch-22 from Joseph Heller based on a partial manuscript. In the publishing world as it stood then and stands now, Toole’s work might have never found its audience. Without the advocacy of novelist Walker Percy – which helped generate the literary attention that allowed the book to win a Pulitzer Prize – the novel might well have failed.

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I will preface this by saying I am one of the many Indie Authors who is now finding a modicum of success. But I want to say that what many people forget to recognize is that the traditional publishers have pumped out dreck as well.

The world is changing and becoming more agile and digitally centralized. The publishing industry is one of the last hold outs. Much of these sentiments and outcries come simply from a fear of the unknown. If the traditional publishers had a handle on what to do with digital content, these statements wouldn’t be an issue.

I’ve actually heard old guard authors state that Indie authors haven’t had to “do the work”. To that I say “nay nay”. In fact, as an Indie author, I have to do a ton of work. I am my own marketer, agent, publisher, designer, and more. The only thing I am not is an editor — which I hire out of my own pocket.

There is no reason that both traditional and Indie artists cannot get along in the book publishing industry. They do in the music industry after all! And what would the world be without Indie music?

A lot more boring.

So — what’s say we can these types of arguments and just accept the fact that there will be both diamonds and rust in the tradition AND the Indie publishing worlds.

I agree. Some of the people who are most suspicious of Indie publishing may end up benefiting from it. Bestselling mainstream authors will almost certainly see their eBook royalty agreements change soon.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for the folks at a mainstream publishing house I worked with on my first book. But they really did not understand eBooks (thought it was four years ago) and I only received proofreading support and line editing, no real structural editing. My editor this time around – who I selected from dozens of responses to my RFP on e-lance – was fantastic.

The difference between traditionally published and self-published books is that the “slush pile” ends up in publication for the latter. Have you read The Hangman’s Daughter? Wool? There are certainly a number of great examples of indie published books. Nobody knows how many manuscripts comparable the Confederacy of Dunces have been lost to history by the current system. There’s a huge need for sorting but if that comes your argument loses all substance. The economic model of Indie publishing is simply better for the vast majority of writers. The best writing will end up starting in the Indie channel and much of it will remain there.

James– Oh Please. You are quite obviously not checking the reviews closely enough. Nor are you reading the sample offered on the page before you’re purchasing the book. I’ve been dividing my time between indie authors and main stream for at least two years and my experience has been that it’s a fairly even split between the two. Both markets produce an equal amount of garbage. It’s up to you as the consumer to arm yourself accordingly so you can make an informed purchase.

I’ll bet I could list ten well-written, well edited indie books with just a little bit of thought. I’ve read five of those within the last three weeks (avid reader). Correspondingly I’ll bet I could list ten seriously crappy books produced by mainstream publishing within the last year with even less thought. All of which I took a chance on because I either a) trusted the author (good author–bad book) b) the premise sounded interesting c) I was in too much of a hurry to read the first page.

TThen you have never read mine. Mind you, just because a book might not be to your taste does not necessarily make it awful. Harry Potter is not to my taste.

I was offered a publishing contract but, like so many of the indie authors you slag off, many publishers are bad too. I chose a self published route because I wanted to maintain control of my work and not give the rights to some mediocre publisher. Simple as that. I have been told I am a talented writer, I won a contest with Harper Collins, I have done the work, paid for professional editorial evalution and received 4 and 5 stars from people I do not even know.

It is so easy for authors who have mainstream publishers to turn up their noses at indies and get arrogant.

Yes there are bad books out there, I have reviewed a few but it is a learning curve ad there are many very good books.

A lot of crap is printed by mainstream publishers too. One publisher in particular in New York. Most everything in this woman’s book contravened good writing but yet she was published repeatedly until she died.

As Winston Churchill said: Success is not final and failure is not fatal